By Manuel Alberto Ramy (Progreso Weekly)
HAVANA TIMES – Words can reflect reality or handle sweetened situations, or divert attention by concentrating it on a goal. Statistics or figures, whatever the reader prefers, are clearer than speeches and newspaper articles. The data confirm or deny, they can also be frames of reality.
Here’s some revealing data:
*Hotel occupancy in the first half of the year: 27.9% (Note: Our neighboring Dominican Republic registered 78.9% occupancy in the first quarter of this year.)
*Investment in hotels, restaurants, business services: 30.6% of the investments made by the government.
*Investment in the agricultural sector: 2.6% (Note: “We practically import 100%” of the food we consume, “said Esteban Lazo, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power during the last parliamentary session.) The agricultural sector is equivalent to food and food security, as important as cannons, as has been stated. So why such a low percentage of investment in agriculture? Do you expect that the 63 measures issued more than a year ago can compensate for the low investment rate? Reality is more stubborn than the the marabou: a systemic problems that make fun of the reality.
*Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation: Inflation will exceed 40% this year, said the Economy Minister weeks ago, and food has contributed 70% to this rise.
Data, necessary to ascertain what needs to be done, reduces reality to numbers and percentages. A reality that millions of Cubans deal with every day. We are the images of reality when you hit play on the video that is our lives.
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